Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Ok, guys, it's time to introduce you to 'Mi Familia' at Planet Cake (well, what I'm trying to say is that I'm sort of stuck with them, if you know what I mean..?? I'm kidding, I love them to bits!)! Ready???

Ok!

So we walk through the front door into the front room, which is always full of cakes. We go through another door and immediately to your left, there's the office! The first person you'll see is, of course, our very own Paris Cutler (I once made a mistake of choosing the wrong seat and ended up sitting on her chair - which was EXACTLY what I was trying to avoid!). After having been here for over a month, I've come to the conclusion that Paris doesn't own heels that aren't at least 3 inches high. Paris is a great inspiration and I adore her no-nonsense, kick-ass approach to business! Next is Cat. I'm not quite sure what Cat's position is or what her job description may be, because I always see her running around doing a million different things at once (I've even seen her building a big tent at one point!). But Cat is truly lovely - she gave me a chewy mint that tasted a bit like soap - it was great! Now, it's time to introduce you to the wonderful Lesley, who is a great person to be with (she has a really good British sense of humour that I miss)! Chances are, most of us have probably came across Lesley at some point in our lives, as she deals with everything from changing Facebook status updates to organising the classes.

Lesley takes her job very seriously and I know this because she never failed to reply to my emails (and there were A LOT of emails!), no matter how ridiculously annoying they were! Then we have Antony, who's in charge of all the cool cake designs that we get to admire from time to time. It's not possible to spend a day at Planet Cake without hearing his laughter booming across the room! And finally, we have Emma! Emma's always smiling and happy - I hope that I'll get to know her better now that she's back from her holidays!

So that's it for the office. Now, let's head to the kitchen. First, you have Anna-Maria, who's a fabulous teacher and decorator. Anna-Maria often says really funny things without even realising that she's being funny, which makes it even funnier! I really enjoyed making my dog cake with her. The next person in line is our kick-boxer Jess, who's got all sorts of cheffy qualifications and makes great desserts!

One time, she introduced me to her class as "Crazy Pam" - thanks, Jess! She also has a tendency to utter random Thai words to me at the most random times (her favourite words include "very expensive", "I don't understand", "Really?"). Who's next, who's next...? Margie!

Margie is insanely good at making novelty cakes and realistic figurines (I swear she can make a blob of old icing look good!) and she loves drinking Chai Latte in the morning. Once, Margie tried to teach me to make Will Smith's head, which went horribly wrong, which meant that we had to peel off the skin, which then resulted in something that resembles Freddie Kruger - not my greatest moment..

*Ahem* Then we have Ritzy, who, for some reason, likes to say "Easy Peasy Japanesey" whenever she does something that looks super difficult! But the good thing about her is that she likes to "experiment" with various combinations of chocolate cereal treats (they always taste sooooo good!) so my plan is to keep encouraging her to "experiment" every week! Next, we have CC! CC's a gifted sculptor and a great teacher. We've had our moments, which largely consist of me complaining about how bad my cake looks and him ignoring my complaints, lol! The last few in the list includes the interns, Michelle and Lori, who are also very talented cake artists. They are so fun to be around and always offer great encouragement and support - thanks, guys! Finally,we have Luigi, Marianne and Neoko, whom I haven't really had a chance to get to know yet, but I've definitely admired their work from afar! And here we go, guys, isn't this exciting??

Yeah, you're right. The reason I wrote such a long introduction was because I didn't want to let myself loose and write an essay on how much those corners frustrate me. I actually went into class with such low expectation that I didn't even freak out when Lori (the new intern) kneed my beautifully ganached cake at lunch time! (Don't worry, Lori, I will NEVER EVER forget what you've done! Hehe..) I always get myself really worked up about these squares - I mean, I know that this is only my second square and I shouldn't be so hard on myself.. BUT THESE CORNERS ARE SERIOUSLY DOING MY HEAD IN! The sad thing is now it's not even the corners that's the problem,.. I've somehow managed to ruin the easiest things on those ghastly squares (a.k.a. flat surfaces that I kept damaging)! You know how the icing sticks together and then you try to pull it apart, which of course leads to stupid cracks in your icing but you just can't be bothered to start all over again?!? Yeah, that's what kept happening to me all morning! People kept telling me that no one would be able to see those faults once the bands go on but I know what's underneath those pretty green bands and I'm just too much of a perfectionist to ignore this fact! But bad things aside, I actually really enjoyed decorating the Basics 103 cake. I've only recently discovered my love for flower-making, especially those 'stylised' ones (as this means that you could do whatever the hell you want with the flowers and will always have "they're stylised" as an excuse!).

The funny thing is that by the time we put everything together, the cake actually looked a hundred times better and I was really quite pleased with myself (and immediately fell in love with my camera for not picking up those horrible dents!). What do you think?

You wanna hear the good news? Basic 104 is all ROUNDS! I can FINALLY get a good night's sleep without having nightmares about those corners for once - woohoo!!! I've got a day off tomorrow so will try to spend it wisely! Laters! xx

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About Me

Back in 2003 Paris Cutler found a little shop hidden down a side street in Sydney’s Inner West and discovered her passion. Since its humble beginnings, Paris with the help of her legendary, and now widely known, Dream Team, has turned Planet Cake into the cake decorating Mecca it is today. Now located in Balmain, Planet Cake’s groovy kitchen has since released the number one selling Australian cake decorating book (with another in the pipeline) and established a world class decorating school with venues in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and this year Perth. It is with a very warm welcome that I invite you to follow our journey and take a look inside the world that is Planet Cake.